When we are faced with the storms that seem to come in our lives, it is hard to find the joy in the heavy downpours like we've had the last few weeks in Northwest Arkansas. The sun hides for days and the world almost seems to be floating in excess mud. A funny thing happens when life's showers come into our lives, that which is unimportant, or simply a covering is often uncovered. Just as the rain cleanses and quenches the soil and deeply soaks until a plant's roots are saturated, sometimes the storms of life wash away that which we have covered our true needs with so succinctly that we no longer feel the cool breezes and the warm sunshine.
As spring tranforms into summer, the showers come. It is a necessary season for growth. The rain showers temporarily transform our situations. It causes us to change or at least alter our routines, it allows us to gain new perspective and appreciation of the sunny days. It helps us to enjoy the lush green grass and helps the flowers bloom as well.
Each season of our life has a purpose. Are you facing a spring, summer, fall or winter in your life? It may be this season has come to prune something that is hindering your growth. It may be to wash away debris and replenish your thirst for life. It may be time to let go of old and make room for new growth to develop. It may be simply a time of new blooming and growth that often follows the dark periods.
Perspective to Ponder:
What season am I facing in my personal life? My professional life? My family life? What can I do to tend my life's garden?
To return to my website go to www.intentionaltransitions.net
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Resurrection Sunday
Each of us face times that we think something within us has died. Sometimes that death is due to exhaustion, other times we slowly stop choosing to keep our heart and passions alive, choked to a joyless life one item at a time that disrespects our mind,hearts,soul and body's need for restoration.
One of the choices we have each day is to choose to live. It may mean redefining success, changing the goals of each day, or simply realigning what truly matters to us. We really do own the power to choose how to live our lives, whether it simply be taking responsibility for owning our existence or choosing to let go of that which keeps us from enjoying life.
What would you change about your daily life if you were to live intentionally? What would you keep in your palette to color your life happy? What tones would you like to add to bring value to your existence? What pictures of your daily life and home would you want to repaint, freshen, or change? We all the sole owners of our lives, are you exercising your right of ownership?
What makes your life worth living? Are you choosing to include those activities and values in your daily choices? It is worth taking time to explore this concept....and to make adjustments until you are living the life that brings you joy and peace.
Happy Easter!
Carla
To return to my website go to www.intentionaltransitions.net
One of the choices we have each day is to choose to live. It may mean redefining success, changing the goals of each day, or simply realigning what truly matters to us. We really do own the power to choose how to live our lives, whether it simply be taking responsibility for owning our existence or choosing to let go of that which keeps us from enjoying life.
What would you change about your daily life if you were to live intentionally? What would you keep in your palette to color your life happy? What tones would you like to add to bring value to your existence? What pictures of your daily life and home would you want to repaint, freshen, or change? We all the sole owners of our lives, are you exercising your right of ownership?
What makes your life worth living? Are you choosing to include those activities and values in your daily choices? It is worth taking time to explore this concept....and to make adjustments until you are living the life that brings you joy and peace.
Happy Easter!
Carla
To return to my website go to www.intentionaltransitions.net
Thursday, February 5, 2009
How Do You Determine Your Deal Breakers?
In life we all have boundaries we choose to live by. Sometimes those boundaries are based on family tradition, some boundaries are based on experiences we've had or those around us have had, some boundaries we accept because someone meaningful to us had those boundaries and yet others are imposed on us by laws and the powers of others.
An elder friend told me that he had three questions to determine if his boundaries when facing a decision had any "Deal Breakers" among the choices. He said he had lived by them over sixty years and they had served him well:
- Would the decision line up with his moral beliefs?
- Would the decision advance him at the cost of someone else?
- Would the decision be a short term answer that would need revisiting or provide a long term solution? (was he picking the easy route that would cost him more in the long run)
When we adopt our own "Deal Breakers", our absolutes in what we will not do or accept done to us or others, we affirm what we believe to be right and true. Sometimes that belief alone will guide our decisions in ways that direct us to be the people we choose to be. What absolutes do you have in play in your life? Are you currently in a situation that is not honoring or breaking any of your own personal absolutes? What is the cost versus the benefits of absolutes in your own life? Do they produce peace, or cause strife?
Perception to Ponder:
What are my personal deal breakers? Do they have a bearing on the decisions I am facing currently? What weight do they have in the life choices I am making? Am I being faithful to choose what I believe is right and true in my life?
To return to my website go to www.intentionaltransitions.net
Thursday, January 8, 2009
What Do You Choose?
As we go through life, the chart notes that we keep from our daily life often include a tally of things that perhaps we hope to experience again and those that we hope indeed do not have to experience again. As more days pass by we often begin to choose paths that will enhance or prohibit experiences from happening to us....and at times we even begin to plan in advance the paths that will have the preferred outcome that we perceive to be the best choice for us. Sometimes those paths were shaped by those who raised us, other times from our own experiences, even other times by some perceived set of rules we adhered to....whether valid for us or not. After all, we actively choose what we participate and believe in don't we? The life rules we chose to live by are what can best define what is best for us aren't they? Or are they? Are we authentically choosing our lives or are we allowing choices to be made for us by not making different choices?
A band director once said to a class that an oboeist would never find the lovely songs that an oboe can produce unless he/she hears it played by someone who is gifted at what an oboe sounds like. I know in my own hands, the first sounds my oboe made were more like a dying duck than a beautiful song.....but true to his words, when I had a tape of what the same exact instrument sounded like in experienced hands, my perceptions of the sounds that could come out of such an instrument changed forever.....however even more importantly, when I chose my own instrument, it became apparent that while I had learned to play an oboe adeptly, my gift, my joy, my ability was truly in another area. While well meaning, my guides had chosen what they thought best for me, but my heart path was indeed not in what they had chosen for me. Only in daring to choose the path that was my own, did I escape the mediocrity of playing an instrument that was not me!
Our experiences are our own, but in this time of changing dynamics, economy, careers and lifestyles, what part of limiting our possible outcomes are defined by our very own limiting of what the possibilities are? Are the perceived outcomes of change so rigid as our mind creates them? Is change perceived as adding difficulty to our lives more often than adding joy or as a doorway to experiencing life from a different perspective? What cost is staying the same in our skilled routines, what cost is there in exploring new ways of perceiving our daily actions and life experiences?
What life experiences do you long for? What dreams and visions of who you'd like to be or become do you allow yourself to consider? What does your mind respond to such possibilites of trying?
Point to Ponder:
Do I limit my possible outcomes for my life choices because of my perceived costs of change? Do I allow that cost of change to be truly evaluated, or is simply the price tag perceived to be always out of reach? Is it allowable to pursue change simply because the life we have experience is no longer the life we wish to experience?
To return to my website go to www.intentionaltransitions.net
A band director once said to a class that an oboeist would never find the lovely songs that an oboe can produce unless he/she hears it played by someone who is gifted at what an oboe sounds like. I know in my own hands, the first sounds my oboe made were more like a dying duck than a beautiful song.....but true to his words, when I had a tape of what the same exact instrument sounded like in experienced hands, my perceptions of the sounds that could come out of such an instrument changed forever.....however even more importantly, when I chose my own instrument, it became apparent that while I had learned to play an oboe adeptly, my gift, my joy, my ability was truly in another area. While well meaning, my guides had chosen what they thought best for me, but my heart path was indeed not in what they had chosen for me. Only in daring to choose the path that was my own, did I escape the mediocrity of playing an instrument that was not me!
Our experiences are our own, but in this time of changing dynamics, economy, careers and lifestyles, what part of limiting our possible outcomes are defined by our very own limiting of what the possibilities are? Are the perceived outcomes of change so rigid as our mind creates them? Is change perceived as adding difficulty to our lives more often than adding joy or as a doorway to experiencing life from a different perspective? What cost is staying the same in our skilled routines, what cost is there in exploring new ways of perceiving our daily actions and life experiences?
What life experiences do you long for? What dreams and visions of who you'd like to be or become do you allow yourself to consider? What does your mind respond to such possibilites of trying?
Point to Ponder:
Do I limit my possible outcomes for my life choices because of my perceived costs of change? Do I allow that cost of change to be truly evaluated, or is simply the price tag perceived to be always out of reach? Is it allowable to pursue change simply because the life we have experience is no longer the life we wish to experience?
To return to my website go to www.intentionaltransitions.net
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